The Boy in the Broken Tower
by DiscordantSymphony
Summary: There are plenty of ghost stories about Winterfell, this is the story of a ghost that turned out to not be a ghost, a tale of family and how the people you thought you knew can turn out to be nothing like you thought.
1. Chapter 1

The Boy in the Broken tower.

Chapter One

"This is a stupid idea." Theon hissed through his teeth as he followed Robb up the stairs, from behind them he could hear Sansa and Arya walking behind them and he could hear Bran babbling in his older sister's hold.

"He's right Robb, we're going to get in trouble!" Sansa shouted as she kept a tight hold on Arya's hand, the girl was trying hard to struggle out of her grip, as well as try to hold her baby brother with just one arm. "If mother and father find out we came up here then we might be sent to bed without dinner, we'll get in a lot of trouble."

If Robb heard either his friend or his sister speaking then he didn't show any sign of showing it, he simply kept climbing the stairs of the broken tower, they we're nearly at the top now and they couldn't stop. He wasn't going to stop until he knew the truth. He wanted to see a ghost.

There were lots of stories about Winterfell being haunted, some said that it was haunted by Bran the Builder himself, who remained to see how his family would continue without him, others said that the castle was haunted by Bran the Burner, unable to move on while he was still unaware of what had happened to his beloved father, others saw flashes of a dark-haired girl with sad grey eyes and wearing a crown of blue winter roses around her hair, most often down in the crypts.

But the most well known ghost, that almost everyone in Winterfell had seen at some point, was the boy in the broken tower, a dark haired pale boy with grey eyes who people would often see in the window, gazing sadly out to all the people below for just a moment before ducking back into the room.

According to one of the stories, he was one of the sons of the lord of Winterfell at the time who had died when the tower was struck by lightening and he had been at the very top of the tower when it had collapsed nearly a century and a half ago but no one had bothered to dig his body out, or at least so the story went.

But Robb didn't believe in ghosts, he had never seen any and he had lived in Winterfell for as long as he could remember, but for some reason father always told them never to enter the broken tower under any circumstances but Robb thought he knew why he always said that and it wasn't to do with any ghost, he just didn't want them going into the tower and disturbing it till it fell.

"Well, you all can go back down if you want but I want to see this ghost." Robb said before he carried on walking up the stairs, as he kept on walking he was fairly sure that he could hear Sansa talking about going back down but not a moment later he heard Arya screaming about how she wanted to see the ghost.

Eventually, Robb could go no further up in the tower as the staircase was blocked with rubble, the only other way he could go was a large door and with a deep breath to gather his courage and remembering what his father once told him about the only time a man could be truly brave was when he was afraid, Robb reached out and curled his fingers around the handle of the door and pulled with all the might his eight year old body could muster.

The door did not even budge. Robb let out a groan of frustration and tried again and again to pull the door open but no matter what he did the door refused to budge.

"There." Theon called from behind him and laughed loudly when he saw the other boy jump, he shook his head when his friend glared at him and glanced at his siblings behind Theon. "The door is locked and we can't go any further up, now can we please go back down because I heard that Gabe was making Venison pie tonight and if you make me lose it I swear to the-

"Father?" A voice called from behind the locked door and RobB and Theon both stared at the door with disbelieving eyes and their mouths hanging open, Arya broke out of her older sister's slackened hold and stumbled over to her eldest brother and wrapped her arms around Robb's leg and peered at the door with wide grey eyes.

From behind them Sansa whimpered and held her baby brother close to her chest with both arms.

"Father?" The voice called again from behind the door and Robb and Theon looked at one another, neither boy having any idea what to do. "Did you lose the key?" The voice asked and from behind the door the group could hear something being dragged against the stone of the floor. Then, a slat at the top of the door slid across and a small pale face filled the gap.

At first the boys grey eyes were confused when he didn't see anything but then he glanced down and his eyes widened when he saw the group of people. "Um...hello."

"Hello!" Arya shouted happily and waved at the boy who laughed and moved his face back from the slat and waved his hand at her before moving to look down at them.

"Who are you? What are you doing in there?" Robb asked as he looked at the boy's dark grey eyes which looked very familiar to him for some reason.

"My name's Jon, I live in here." The boy said as if it wasn't unusual that he lived in a locked room in a collapsing tower, he suddenly gasped and his eyes widened happily. "Are you Robb!?" He shouted.

"Aye, I am. How did you know that?" Robb asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And you must be Arya, and you must be Sansa and that must be Bran." Jon said as he eyes darted from Arya to Sansa to Bran and then finally landed on Theon. "And I suppose that makes you Theon."

"Aye it does, now answer his question. How do you know his name, not to mention all of ours!" Theon shouted, seeming more angry than Robb did about a strange boy locked in a tower knowing all of their names.

"Father told, he told me a lot about all of you, he always talks about you when ever he comes and see me." Jon explained and Robb frowned, it suddenly occurred to him why those grey eyes looked familiar to him.

He saw them all the time when he looked up at his father and looked down at his baby sister. "Who is your father?" Robb asked.

"Lord Eddard Stark." Jon answered with a smile. "Did father say you could finally come and see me, is that why you're here?" He asked hopefully.

"Your not a ghost?" Arya asked with a heavy frown, almost sounding disappointed.

Jon blinked at her for a moment before he laughed. "I don't think I am, someone may have forgotten to tell me."

"You're our brother?" Robb asked, drawing Jon's attention back to him. "What are you doing in there, why does father keep you locked up?"

"I guess I am, aye. And I don't know why our father keeps me in here, he just says that it's safer in here for me then it would be outside." Jon explained with a small roll of his shoulders.

"What do you do in there all day?" Sansa asked as she stepped closer, her curiosity getting the better of her. "And what do you eat?"

"Father brings me meals, he just brought me breakfast before you all came." Jon answered with a smile, happy that his sister had come closer so he could get a better look at her. "And I do lots of stuff, but I mostly read and sew."

"Boys aren't mean to sew!" Theon laughed.

"Why?" Jon asked with a small frown.

"Because...Because there aren't!" Theon shouted.

"But why?" Jon asked.

Theon groaned loudly and Robb laughed at him, he glanced back up at his brother and smiled at him. "What do you read?" He asked.

"Well, at the moment I'm reading this book about Aemon the Dragonknight, oh! Wait here, I can show it to you!" Jon said happily and he leapt off whatever he was standing on and disappeared from view.

"I think we should go now." Theon said as he listen to Jon's running footsteps. "He seems weird."

"Don't be stupid Theon, he isn't dangerous." Robb said smugly as he kept his eyes on the slat, waiting for Jon to come back.

"I think Theon might be right." Sansa admitted as she glanced down at Bran's face before she looked up and looked into her brother's blue eyes which had narrowed in surprised at her. "Father wouldn't have locked him up in there if he wasn't dangerous, there isn't anything dangerous out here in Winterfell. I think we should go."

Robb bit his lip and thought about it for a moment until his attention was drawn back to the door and Jon's face appearing in the slat once again, a grin on his face. "Here's the book! It's called-

"Jon." Robb interrupted him and Jon looked down at him. "We have to go now."

"Oh." Jon said quietly surprise in his eyes along with something else. "Okay, I understand. Goodbye." Jon said before he shut the slat and Robb heard him moving whatever he was standing on back.

"Bye-Bye!" Bran called and then the group began to make their way down the stairs of the tower, Robb glanced back at the locked door and firmly made a decision right there and then.

He was going to find out why his father had locked him in there and then he was going to come back.

End of Chapter One

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	2. Chapter 2

The Boy in the Broken tower.

Chapter Two.

Robb tried to find his bravery that he had in the tower but it had seemed to desert him now that he was sitting at the high table at the left of his mother, he was going to find out why Jon was locked in the tower. No matter what, but it was difficult to find the words he had been thinking off now.

This was his mother and his father, his mother who had soothed him whenever he was ill or scared of the thunder storms which always seemed to be just outside the window no matter where he was in the castle. His father always had a smile for him, was always interested in what he learned from Maester Luwin or what he had done at all through out the day.

He loved them both, more than anything.

He didn't want to believe that they would be so cruel as to lock his brother in a tower, if someone had ever told him that his mother and father would ever lock away a child in the broken tower then he would've called them stupid before punching them in the face.

But no one had told him that, he had seen it with his own eyes that a boy who was clearly a Stark, he looked more like a Stark than he, Sansa or little Bran did, he looked a lot like Arya. His mother and father had done that but he couldn't understand why, even if he was a bastard why lock him away? Plenty of houses would consider it an honour to foster a bastard of their liege lord, if they didn't want him here they could easily send him away. They could've done it when he was still young enough to have no memory of them.

None of it made any sense.

He was also uncertain what he could even do for Jon, Robb was still only a boy and if his father had ordered that Jon remain in there then there was nothing that Robb could do about it. He wasn't the lord and he wouldn't be the lord until his father died and Robb wanted that to be a very long time from now.

He was stuck, that was the truth of it. There was nothing that he could do.

He glanced around at his siblings to see how they were acting, Sansa was acting like nothing was wrong at all and like she had never been at the tower at all. Her hair was perfect straight and was held in a silver hairnet with those blue sapphire that were the size of pears in it, it was a gift from Lady Manderly, the wife of Lord Manderly of White Harbor.

Arya was currently the focus of all their mother's attention, she was wearing a pink dress and she looked mad about it, like someone had spat on her and insulted her honour all at once. She honestly did not look terrible in the dress but the dress looked terrible on Arya and she was glaring at her beef stew as if it was the cause of all her problems.

Their mother was speaking to her softly, telling her how pretty she looked without understanding that wasn't the problem. The problem wasn't that Arya didn't think that she was pretty, the problem was she simply didn't want to wear a dress.

On the other side of the long table Bran the Baby was the focus of their father's attention, as well as half the servants in the entire castle lately, he was currently sitting on their father's knee and looked he was ready to be put down for the night, it would surprise Robb if he could even make it half way up to his room before he feel asleep.

As if on cue his brother's head bowed and their father chuckled, he handed Bran over to Septa Mordane who had come when her lord called her and carried him out of the room but not before he was handed over to his mother for his normal goodnight kiss.

Theon was picking at his pie, clearly having no hunger in him despite how insistent he had been that he got his venison pie, Theon wasn't his brother of course. He was just his father's ward but he was the son of a great lord so he was allowed to sit at the high table a lot of the time.

Robb wondered if he was thinking about Jon, he wondered if any of them were thinking about Jon as much as he was. Had he been here all the time? He didn't seem much older than Robb did, had been here since Robb was a baby? Were they twins, perhaps one twin took more after their parent then the other. Robb looked like their his mother and Jon looked more like their father.

But that didn't make any sense at all, if Jon was his trueborn brother then why was he locked away? No, him being a bastard made a lot more sense. But even the sense that made was fouled by him being locked away, his head was starting to hurt as he thought more and more on this. As soon as he thought that he had figured it all out his mind thought of something else or reminded him of something that smashed all his theories to pebbles.

"Robb, what's wrong lad?" His father's voice brought him out of his thoughts and Robb suddenly realised that everyone at the high table was staring at him. "You look pale, are you feeling unwell? Would you like to go to bed?" His father reached out and placed his palm over his forehead. "You're not hot."

"I'm not sick I just...I think I saw a ghost." Robb admitted as he looked down at his hands, there was no turning back now even if he wanted too.

His father let out a laugh and reached to tussle his red curls, normally the gesture off affection from his father would make Robb smile but now his chest felt tight and he was scared. "Robb, I've lived in Winterfell almost my entire life and I promise you, there are no ghosts here, there just stories that the servants tell."

"I'm sure I saw one though, in the window of the broken tower." There was a loud smash from behind him and Robb turned to see that his mother's skin had turned pale and at her feet were the shards of her glass, all that remained of her glass and now everyone in the hall had turned to look at his mother.

His mother cleared his throat and stood to her feet. "Pardons, I am feeling unwell so I must ask that you all pardon my absence." She shot a look at Robb's father that Robb couldn't read but his father suddenly looked a deal older, colder. He had put on the face of the Lord of Winterfell and not his father.

His mother nodded and took his sister's hands and began to lead them away, Arya complaining all the way and was more being dragged then actually walking away though Sansa followed as dutifully as ever.

Maester Luwin was called and had Theon escorted to a lower table and it looked like he was going to complain but managed to bite his tongue at the last second, and then it was just Robb and the lord of Winterfell at the high table and Robb Stark didn't think he had ever been so afraid in his entire life.

He turned his gaze down to his plate were a few flakes of buttery pastry were scattered and a few stains of brown gravy stained it, he should've just kept quite. What was Jon to him? He had only meet him this afternoon, he knew nothing about him. He should've let the ghost of the Broken Tower stay a mystery.

But he hadn't wanted to leave it a mystery, he wanted to know. And it wasn't true that he knew nothing about Jon; he liked to read and to sew, unusual for a boy but what else did have to do to keep himself entertained looked in the tower? And he was lonely, that was clear to Robb more than anything else.

When he had told him they had to leave he honestly thought that the boy was going to cry for a moment, all he had done was let out a sad little 'oh' and that had been it and he had retreated into his lonely chamber, he couldn't leave him like that. Jon and Robb were brothers, and he wanted to known Jon better.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the feeling of a large hand gently coming down on his shoulder and he lifted his head from his plate to look up at his father, and it was his father that had gotten his attention, the face of the lord of Winterfell has vanished and it was only the man that Robb loved more than any other.

"Robb." He spoke firmly but not unkindly. "This is an old castle and there are stories of thousands and thousands of ghosts, but there are none. There are no such things as ghosts, you heard the story just as I did when I was a lad and you thought that you saw something but you didn't, alright?"

It would've been so easy to nod his head, to pretend that it hadn't happened but it hard and he wasn't going to bow to his fear. He wouldn't. "I've met Jon, I climbed to the top of the broken tower and I spoke to him through the slot at the top of his door where you locked him in."

"This feast has ended! Everyone retire to your beds or finish up any of your duties!" Robb didn't think he had ever heard his father shout so loud in his entire life and the low folk were clear shocked as well but that didn't stop them from following their lord's command as they always did, standing up and leaving the great hall.

"Who else was with you?" His father asked as soon as he was certain that the hall was empty and the doors swung shut. Robb didn't want to say, he didn't want to get his sisters in trouble or his brother or Theon either.

But he knew that his father would know if he was lying, he always seemed to know when Robb was lying to him so with a heavy sigh he confessed. "Sansa and Arya were with me, Bran as well and Theon didn't want to be let out and he said that he was the oldest so we couldn't leave him out even if we wanted too. We just wanted to see the ghost."

His father sighed and rubbed at his face and he looked tired, and sad and Robb hated that he was at least partly the cause of this. "Robb, the broken tower is dangerous. It isn't stable and it could collapse at any moment and what if you or your brother or your sisters or Theon had fallen and hurt themselves?"

"If it isn't safe then why do you have Jon locked up in there? He shouldn't be in there if it's dangerous. Oh, wait does it only matter if it's dangerous to your trueborn children? He is a bastard and he is my brother, isn't he? Why have you locked him up in there? What could he have done that was so bad?" Robb asked, reaching out to grab his father's sleeve as he tried so very hard to understand even though he honestly couldn't.

None of this made any sense.

His father removed his hands from his face and placed them on Robb's shoulders and stared into his eyes, Stark grey met Tully blue and held the gaze. Eddard Stark let out a heavy sigh and bent his head. "Robb, you're too young to under this-"

"I'm seven!"

His father let out a laugh and Robb had try very hard not to feel offend, he wasn't a baby anymore. "I know you are, but just know that...all I do for Jon is for his own benefit and I will go and speak with him tomorrow."

"Don't be angry with him! It wasn't his fault!" He didn't want to have made it worse for Jon, it was the last thing that he wanted.

"I'm not angry with him and I am not angry with you, I'm going to speak with him and with your mother and with a bit of luck Jon could maybe come down and have breakfast with all of us, would you like that?" Robb nodded, he would like that a lot.

"Tell my why you keep him in there, please father?" Robb asked as he looked into his father's eyes, he thought for a moment that he was going to tell him but then his hopes fell when his father sighed and shook his head.

"I wish that I could Robb, but you wouldn't understand. Just know that I love your brother and I do it all for him, and I love your mother as well. Just trust me, everything will be alright."

End of Chapter Two.

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 **Welp, there we go. I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. Now, Catelyn is not going to be the villain of this story so please don't go away thinking that. I'd be hard pressed to say if this story even had a villain.**

 **The next chapter will swap to Jon, he and Robb will be the main POVs but there will probably be others.**

 **Please follow, favourite and review.**

 **Thanks very much,**

 **Doctorwhofan12345**


	3. Chapter 3

The boy in the broken tower.

Chapter Three.

Jon let out a sigh as he read the same word over and over in his book before he closed it and plopped it on to the table that was next to his chair, he had read the book so many times that it seemed to him that he all he needed to do was to close his eyes and he could see the story being played out in front of him a dozen times.

He could probably speak the story to himself, it might make him feel a little less lonely at the very least. Reading always did so, a reader could live ten thousand lives in a single day if they wished too. His own life held little interest to him as it was now, trapped in this room in the broken tower for as long as he could remember.

This little room had been his whole world, he had never been outside of it's walls. There was the window that overlooked the courtyard but he wouldn't know how to climb down the tower even if he wanted too, which he didn't. Not really. He could look out of it through but father had always said to take care that no one down below saw him.

Not that it mattered if they did or not, in fact he was almost certain that many of the people down below had seen him at least once, they never said or did anything. Sometimes he thought about screaming until someone who wasn't his father was forced to come and deal with him, but he never did it. Mainly because he knew that no one would come.

But someone did come, his brothers and his sisters. His father had told him about them of course but he had never seen them before that day, it had been nice to talk to them but they seemed scared of something, or at least Sansa had. Arya didn't seem like she was afraid of anything and Robb had been nicer than Jon had imagined.

He hadn't liked Theon very much, but he might have simply been in a bad mood. He hadn't liked that he had laughed when he told them that he sewed to pass the time, he hadn't understood what he meant when he said boys weren't meant to do it. He was good at sewing and it gave him something to do, to pass the endless time.

All though, he had to admit that when he sat staring out of his window he did find watching the men in the yard practicing with their swords he wished that he could go out and join them. He had read dozens and dozens of stories about handsome knights saving pretty princesses from towers that were guarded by fearsome fire-breathing dragons or stories about fierce northern warriors marching through the lands of ever winter beyond the wall to save their lady loves who had been stolen by the wildlings.

He always dreamed that he was the hero in the stories, that he would go on a grand adventure and save the princess. It would never happen, he had never even held a sword in his entire life. The sharpest thing in his chamber was his knitting needles, and he was hardly going to slay a giant with them.

Jon had never told his father but he had once tried to use his needles to open the lock on his door in the middle of the night, it hadn't worked and at one point it had gotten stuck and he hadn't been able to get it out of the lock no matter how much he pulled and he had been terrified that he wouldn't be able to get it out and he would be left to stave.

He had eventually managed to get it out but it had taken an entire night of pulling and twisting the needle, his hands had been red and scratched by the time it was out and the sun was already beginning to lighten the sky. He didn't even have time to put the needle away as his father had arrived soon after with his breakfast.

In truth it was probably better that he hadn't been able to get the door open, if he had gotten out he wouldn't have any idea where to go. He knew where the gate that lead out of the castle was but how to get down to it was something that escaped him, he would more than likely have spent the entire night running around the castle until he found his way into hot springs underneath Winterfell or he would have gotten himself lost in the crypts.

He had read about the crypts, once. It had been written about in a large dusty tome that had been written by an archmaester of the citadel in Oldtown. The book was old and the paper had long ago turned to a burnt orange colour and it was barely holding together, the name had faded away as well. The only reason he knew that it had even been written by an archmaester was because only an archmaester wrote a book this long and detailed.

And only an Archmaester would use twenty words where one would do just as well.

Jon sighed heavily and began to walk back and forth across the chamber, and then up and down, and then back and forth once again. It only took him twenty steps to cross his room both up and across, it was the only true amount of movement he ever got. He suddenly felt like screaming again.

Before he could open his mouth to even consider letting out a scream there was a knock on the door and Jon snapped around to look at it, he glanced out the window and frowned. The moon was high in the sky and the rest of the castle seemed to be asleep and Father never came to see him when it was this late.

"Hello?" Jon asked as he stepped away from the door, slowly scooting over to where a broom laid on the floor. He had been tasked with keeping his chamber clean which Jon didn't think was very fair, it wasn't as if he wanted to be locked in here all the time but no servants were ever allowed to come and tend to him.

In truth he didn't mind doing the chores, it kept him moving and gave him something else to do and right not he was glad of something that could be used as a weapon. He had his needles as well but at the moment he needed something with a bit more reach.

The castle seemed more quiet then he had ever known it and as he stared at the door images of every word he had read about the sieges of castles in the past, he remembered about one he had read about in one of his books. Thirty men had entered a castle in the Reach at night with the help of some guards they had paid and they had slaughtered the family that had lived their, when the servants had woken up they found that they were serving new lords.

They had been lords for less than a moon, the rest of the Reach had risen up against the castle and they had managed to hold it for three days before the servants had gained the courage to open the gates of the castle and let the knights of the Reach in to deal with them. The book didn't say what had happened to the castle or the lands surrounding it, all the family was dead and their was no one to inherit. He supposed the lands would simply be granted to Highgarden.

The men of the north were more fierce than any southron night, and more loyal as well. If such a thing was to happen to Winterfell then the men of the north would rise up and throw their besiegers out, possibly even throw them into the sea. Though that thought did little to comfort Jon, they might be avenged but they would still be dead and it wasn't be Jon who was avenged, he doubted that most of the north even knew that he existed.

He was so caught in his thoughts that he almost missed his father's voice calling from the other side of the door. "Jon? Are you still awake? If you are, can I come in?"

There was little that Jon could do to stop his father if he truly wanted to come in, he had a key and there was no way to bar the door on this side. He could go to his bed and pretend to be asleep but it was more than likely that his father would hear him moving and just come in anyway. "I am awake Father, what's wrong?"

"Nothing son, I'm coming in." Their was the tell-tale click of the key being slid inside the door and unlocking it, the door pushed open and the hinges screamed in protest, the door was only ever opened two times a day, sometimes three. As his father stepped inside Jon found all the bitterness and anger and boredom seemed to have faded and he rushed to tackle his father's legs, wrapping his arms around them.

He felt his father's hand reached down to pat his black curls, Jon pulled back as his father knelt in front of him and stared into his eyes. "Jon, Robb told me that he and your brothers and sisters and my ward Theon came up to see you?"

Jon swallowed roughly at his Father's question, he should have known that it would somehow get him into trouble. He briefly considered telling him that they hadn't but he knew that he would only be in more trouble if he lied about it. So, with tears in his eyes, he nodded his head only once and kept it bowed as he waited for his father's disapproval.

The man let out a heavy sigh and tilted Jon's head up so he could look into his eyes. "Jon, I am not angry with you. I promise you that I am not, that would be like being angry with you because there had been a fire at the bottom of the tower. I made it clear to all of them that they were never to come in here, they disobeyed. Not you."

"Don't be angry with them, they were just curious. They didn't know that I was their brother." Jon let out a little laugh, it was kinda funny now that he thought about it. "They thought that I was just a ghost." It was funny, why did it make him feel so very sad?

"I am not angry with them, and I am not angry with you. If I am angry with anyone at the moment then I am angry with myself." Ned sighed and Jon was certain that he had never seen his father look so sad in all the time that Jon had seen him, he had seen him sad before, sometimes he would look at him but it was if he wasn't actually seeing him.

"Jon, I don't like keeping you locked up in here. You need to know that, it is for your own benefit." Jon always liked to believe his father in everything, the man was his only connection to the world but at that moment he seemed more desperate to convince himself of what he was saying rather than convince Jon.

"I know that Father, really I do but...why am I locked in here? I think I deserve to know that much at the very least."

For the longest time his Father didn't say anything, he only stared at him sadly before he decided to speak again.

"How would you like to come and have breakfast with all of us in the morning?"

Jon was struck dumb at the words, his mouth opening and closing in shock as he tried to force the words out. He quickly grabbed his arm and began to pinch his skin through the fabric of his shirt, ignoring the strange look that his father gave him. He had dreams like this before, dreams of his father coming to collect him from this chamber and taking him down to be seen by all the men and women of Winterfell. To be acknowledged by all the men and women of the North, as their Lord's son.

The dreams often took a nasty turn, sometimes all the men and woman would scream at the sight of him and would demand his death, they would rip him from his father's grasp and drag him over to a well. As they were about to throw him into the water he would always catch a glimpse of his own reflection and the sight caused him to scream louder than any of the people holding him.

His would be rotting off of the bone, his eyes would be gone and yet somehow he would still able to see, his nose would be gone with only a fleshy to tell of where it had once been and his lips would be stripped from his face, showing only his teeth which were rotted and black. That was the worst of his nightmares.

In another the courtyard would be completely empty and it would just be him and his father standing there, after a moment or two his father would fade away into the mourning mist and the walls of Winterfell would crumble to stones, the ground would split and a large dark shape would rise up from the ground beneath Winterfell and it would spread it's wings to blot out the sun before bathing the ruins of Winterfell in burning shadow.

He kept pinching at his skin, he felt pain but that didn't mean anything. He had felt pain in his dreams before, and he didn't want this to be a dream. He wanted this to be real, he wanted that more than anything else in the entire world.

If he kept pinching as hard he was then he had no doubt that his arm would be black and blue before too long but his father reached out and gently pulled his hand away and held it firmly. "Stop that now, this isn't a dream lad. I promise. Now, answer my question. Would you like to have breakfast with the rest of us?"

"Yes please!" Jon shouted, not giving his father a chance to change his mind. This was all that he had ever wanted, more than anything.

"Well, there we go then. I need to go now Jon, you go to sleep now and I will come and collect you in the morning." His father reached out and gave him a hug and Jon never wanted him to let go but he did, and all too soon in Jon's mind. His father pressed a kiss to his curls before he stood up and left the room, shutting the door and locking it.

Jon quickly crawled into his bed and tried to close his eyes so that he could fall to asleep but try as he might he found that he could not, an energy had seeped into him and it would not leave. He shut his eyes but they felt so light that they slid open again with the barest of effort, This was going to be a good thing.

This was the day that everything would finally be all right.

This would be the time that his one good dream came true.

Yes, this time.

End of Chapter Three.

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 **The next chapter should be the breakfast and more than likely it will be from Robb's perspective, though I can not deny that a little part of me is dying to write it from Catelyn's perspective as I like writing for Cat.**

 **Thank you all for reading and I will see you next chapter.**

 **Love,**

 **Doctorwhofan12345**


	4. Chapter 4

The Boy in the Broken Tower.

Chapter Four.

Robb Stark was very, very frightened. He was sitting in his chair on the small table where father would have them all break their fast alone, it wasn't often used as his father always preferred that they broke their fast and had their evening meal in the great hall with the men and women of Winterfell, his father always said that it was important that the people you would rule over know who you were, don't let them die for a stranger that they never saw.

But Robb knew why they were having breakfast in the smaller room, Father was going to keep his promise and he was going to bring Jon down to eat with them and he was excited about that but the thing he was scared about at the moment was his Mother. No, it wasn't that he was scared off her because he knew that she would never hurt him, he was scared of how she would react when she saw Jon.

Robb didn't know why Jon was in that tower but he did remember that Jon said that they had the same father, but he hadn't mentioned anything about having a Mother or who she was. That could only mean that Jon didn't know who his Mother was and that meant that Jon would only be their half brother, but his father hadn't been married before which meant that Jon was a bastard.

Robb didn't think that he had ever meet a bastard before, there were a few that he learned about from his lessons with Maester Luwin, the Targaryen bastards were always the most famous, or infamous for how often they rebelled against the true Targaryens, wars that lasted for years and always brought blood and death on to the Seven Kingdoms.

Jon didn't seem like he would bring blood and death to anyone, he seemed to nice to do that. They hadn't talked since Robb had discovered him at the top of the tower but he was his brother, he didn't think that Jon would hurt him. But from what Maester Luwin had taught him in his lessons if a Lord had a bastard child then the normal thing to do was to send them to another lord to be fostered, it was considered an honour to be asked to raise someone else's child under their roof and it stopped the lord's bastard from being see as an insult to his lady wife and to his trueborn children.

But Father didn't send Jon away, he kept him in Winterfell even though he had locked him up in the broken tower. He had to wonder then if his Mother had been the one to make Jon stay in the tower. When Robb had told his parents that he had been up to see Jon with his siblings and Theon, his mother had dropped her glass out of shock so she must have known that Jon was up there.

If it was true, if his Mother had locked Jon up in there, if she had made Father do that...Robb didn't know what to think, it couldn't be true could it? This was his mother after all, his Mother who used to hold him when he was a babe and fed him from her own breast, who held him when he had been young and had fallen and scrapped his needs, who had kept him safe when he had been scared of thunder storms at night and let him sleep with her in her bed.

She couldn't be the same woman who would lock a boy, no older than him, up in a tower? She just couldn't be.

But then, he had thought that about his Father as well. He was an honourable man, everybody always said so. He wouldn't lie to anyone, he didn't plot and he didn't scheme and he wouldn't stab anyone in the back or hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. So did Jon deserve it? Did he deserve to be locked up in a tower for the rest of his days? Robb didn't think that he did.

But then, Robb didn't really know what to think anymore.

His mother was dressed in a gown of heavy green velvet and had her hand clasped tightly around her goblet, her other hand was hold Bran's just as tightly. His baby brother looked uncomfortable but he also looked too scared to say anything about it. Sansa was sitting on their mother's right, dressed in her blue silk dress that had been a gift from form Lord Wyman Manderly of White Harbour. It had always been one of her favourites and Robb knew that she would wear it all the time if Mother allowed her too, he was surprised that she would let her wear for when it was just a breakfast.

Arya was dressed in a grey dressed and looked uncomfortable and miserable in equal measure, kicking her feet back and forth and Robb knew that all she wanted at that moment was to jump out of her chair and go and run outside. He imagined that the only thing that was keeping her from doing that was the threat of more lessons with Septa Mordane, Arya hated the woman almost as much as she hated vegetables although she had not ever tried to fend the septa off by swinging her doll at her, yet.

The door to the room opened and Father stepped in, his face was cold and seemed to be carved from stone and Robb realised his mistake. It may have just been them that were eating in the room but Father was not here, Lord Stark of Winterfell had come instead. Following behind him, glancing around the room like it was made of solid gold instead of grey stone, was Jon.

This was the first time that Robb finally got a good look at him instead of just his face, he was a little shorter than Robb but not by much and he was dressed in a grey cotton shirt and black trousers. He seemed a little thinner than Robb as well, not to the point that he looked like he was being starved but enough so that he looked like he wasn't eating enough as he should have been.

His father pulled out the chair that was next to Robb and across from Sansa and Jon sat down in it, Robb gave him a smile to try and make him feel welcome and it seemed to work as Jon smiled back at him. The smile soon dropped however when Jon turned and noticed that Robb's mother was staring holes into him. Jon dropped his head so he was looking down at the table. Robb frowned heavily as he glanced between his brother and his mother, not sure what to do or to say.

Father took his place at the head of the table and a few moments after he did so the servant's entrance opened and the serving women brought out platters of food and pitchers. There was still silence as food was being placed on their plates, if any of the woman found it odd that there was a child that neither of them had seen before than none of them said anything.

Almost too soon all of their plates were filled with bacon, eggs, buttered peas, blood sausage and some oaten bread that had only been in the oven a few moments ago, Bran didn't have the same as he was still too young and so he had a bowl of porridge that had been sweetened with a lot of honey and had fresh winter berries on the top. It looked delicious but Robb found that he had little appetite but at the same time he knew that if he didn't eat it would just draw attention on to him and so he picked up his fork and stabbed it into his blood sausage as he used his knife to hack at it.

It seemed he had taken the plunge as soon everyone else had began to tuck into their plates, his Mother using her fork and knife to cut up Arya's bacon and sausage before she turned to feeding Bran his porridge. A yelp turned everyone's attention to Jon as he dropped his fork on to the plate, a piece of bacon speared on top of it. His eyes went wide when he noticed everyone was staring at him. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to it being that hot."

An awkward silence filled the room again as everyone stopped eating, his father's lordly masked slipped for a moment and Robb saw a glimmer of shame and pain in his eyes for a moment before the mask slammed back into place. He reached out and picked up his mug of ale and before he took a gulp of it said. "Don't forget to blow on it Jon."

"I won't Father." Jon said as he picked up his fork again, staring at it for a moment before he started to blow on the bacon. The clatter of forks and knives filled the air, once Bran had eaten half of his porridge Robb's Mother turned her attention to her own plate, ripping her oaten bread in half and rubbing it in the fat of the bacon and slowly biting into one of the halves.

"What are you reading? You like to read don't you? You said that you did." Robb asked as gently as he could, not wanting to scare his brother considering how nervous he looked. It still seemed to shock him that someone who wasn't their Father asked him a question as he turned to look at him, his greys eyes wide with surprise.

"Oh, well. I was reading about some of the great sieges of Westeros but I was also reading a tale about Ser Aemon, the Dragonknight. Well, actually it's a lot of tales in one book. You can have it, if you want. I've read it a lot of times already." Jon said with a smile before he turned his attention back on to his plate before Robb could answer him, in truth Robb honestly didn't like reading that much but the offer clearly meant a lot to Jon and so he said nothing either way.

"Why do you live in the Broken Tower?" Arya asked from her own chair, a bit of blood sausage hanging from her mouth. Their mother was quick to chastise her and told her to not speak while her mouth was full. Arya swallowed her bit of sausage before she repeated her question as though her mother hadn't even said anything in the first place. "Why do you live up in the broken tower?"

Jon glanced between Arya and their father and it was clear to Robb that he had no idea what to say. "I don't-I don't know why, I just do. I've been in there since I was able to walk, I think."

Arya frowned heavily and looked like she was about to say something more but she couldn't before their Mother slammed her goblet down on the table, her blue eyes darkening as she stared across at his Father. Robb had never seen anyone look at his Father like that, certainly never Mother. "Ned, I need to speak with you. And I need to speak with you know."

The lord of Winterfell's face didn't twitch, he simply kept meeting her eyes. "Robb, take you brother out into the yard. You can show him the rest of Winterfell, Sansa, take Bran and Arya and go and find your septa." As soon as the words were out, Robb and Jon leapt from their chairs while Sansa tool hold of Bran and held Arya's hand as they all left the room together.

As soon as they were out in the corridor Sansa looked at Jon like he was the ugliest thing that she had ever seen, spinning on her heel as she walked down the hallway, carrying the squirming Bran and protesting Arya away. Jon was looking down at his feet and playing with his fingers. "I should have just stayed in the tower."

"That's not true!" Robb shouted, Jon jumped like he had just been screamed at and Robb realised that he wasn't used to being around other people. He reached down and took hold of Jon's wrist. "Come on, we're going to go and find Theon and then I am going to show you all of Winterfell."

Robb practically dragged Jon down the hallway, he was going to show him the godswood and the great hall and the crypts and the hot springs, he would love the Library tower considering how much he loved to read. Robb had a new brother, this was not a bad thing no matter what Sansa or his Mother and Father thought. He'd make them all see that.

Jon wasn't going back into that tower. He wouldn't allow it.

End of Chapter Four

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 **Welp, a short chapter but the breakfast is done and dusted. Next chapter we are switching perspectives, it will either be Ned or Cat. Place your bets and place them now.**

 **Please review, follow, favourite and review if you enjoyed this story.**

 **Love,**

 **Doctorwhofan12345.**


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